Skin Hunters

The "Skin Hunters" [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3323663.stm] ("Łowcy skór" in Polish) is the media nickname for four hospital casualty workers from the Polish city of Łódź, who have been convicted of murdering at least five patients and selling information regarding their deaths to funeral homes. They were caught in 2002. Their descriptive designation was coined by a newspaper article which first brought the story to public attention.

Case

On January 20 2007 four workers from a Łódź casualty department were sentenced. The perpetrators were shown to have killed mostly elderly patients using the muscle relaxant pancuronium (brand name Pavulon). [This is one of the drugs administered during a lethal injection in the United States. It was also used by medical serial killer Efren Saldivar.] The four workers then sold information about the deceased patients to funeral homes, so they could contact the relatives before other funeral homes. The were paid bribes ranging from 12,000 to over 70,000 zloty.http://www.warsawvoice.pl/view/13662/]

The killers, whose full names are protected by the courts, are:
* Paramedic Andrzej N. was sentenced to life for the murder of four patients and for helping Karol B. in a further murder.
* Paramedic Karol B. was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment for the "particularly cruel" ("szczególnie okrutne") murder of "Ludmiła Ś." and for helping Andrzej N. murder other patients.
* Doctor Janusz K. was sentenced to six years and banned from practising medicine for 10 years, for wilfully endangering 10 patients.
* Doctor Paweł W. was sentenced to five years and banned from practising medicine for 10 years for the wilful endangering of four patients.

Their sentences were upheld by the Łódź Appeal Court in June 2008. [ [http://prawo.gazetaprawna.pl/artykuly/28928,lekarze_skazani_w_procesie_lowcow_skor_stawili_sie_w_areszcie.html gazetaprawna.pl] ] Further appeal is possible to the Supreme Court of Poland and the prosecution has not discounted the possibilty of this occuring. At the present time, it is unclear whether such an appeal is actually in progress. [http://prawo.gazetaprawna.pl/artykuly/28928,lekarze_skazani_w_procesie_lowcow_skor_stawili_sie_w_areszcie.html] [http://www.rynekzdrowia.pl/Aktualnosci/Bo-lowcy-nie-byli-lowcami,282.html]

The investigation into the scandal is still ongoing and a total of forty other members of the casualty department are under investigation, [http://www.tvn24.pl/0,1559188,0,1,kolejni-lowcy-skor-za-kratami,wiadomosc.html] as are the owners of a local funeral home for receiving information regarding the deaths of patients. [ [http://serwisy.gazeta.pl/kraj/1,34384,3863336.html gazeta.pl] ] . The funeral home charged the costs of the bribes it paid to the bills that families of the deceased paid for their funerals.

Discovery

The scandal was first brought to public attention on January 23 2002 in an article in Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza by Tomasz Patora, Marcin Stelmasiak and Przemysław Witkowski. They described how the hospital workers or paramedics would call funeral homes regarding patient deaths in order to receive a bribe, and sometimes even killed patients. The dead patients were called "skins" and so the article was called "Skin Hunters" ("Łowcy skór") [http://serwisy.gazeta.pl/kraj/1,34384,656146.html gazeta.pl] .

In popular culture

In 2003 a film, "Skin Hunters" ("Łowcy skór") was made of the case starring Piotr Adamczyk. [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0385061/] In 2008, a documentary of the events, "Necrobusiness", was made by a Swedish company. [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1244098/]

References

External links

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3323663.stm BBC report]